Tuesday, July 24, 2007


There is a rock hyrax at the San Diego zoo--we only saw one, but there were signs indicating that a whole rock hyrax colony might be there! Remember, those aren't big buck teeth, they're actually little tusks.

And also, there was a flying fox!

4 comments:

mark wallace said...

The fact that the rock hyrax is most closely related to the elephant, and not to rodents, is one of the weirdest animal facts floating around, I think. And isn't their skin like elephant skin, and it needs to breathe and be cooled in some unique way?

tmorange said...

klo, continuing to impress us with her knowledge of bizarre animals...

t.

K. Lorraine Graham said...

Early Rock Hyraxes were as large as cows and hippos! Rock Hyraxes have several characteristics similar to early mammals and elephants. They can't regulate their body temperatures, so they sit out in the sun (or shade) like reptiles.

They don't chew cud, but they have several stomachs, like a cow or goat. I'm still researching this.

Ryan W. said...

debonair small tusked mammal